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Heavy metal pollution in soils of development zones has attracted wide attention. In this study, soil heavy metal pollution levels and health risks in 15 selected development zones in Shandong Province were investigated for the first time. Geo-accumulation and potential ecological risk indexes were used to assess pollution levels, and health risk w...
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... The bioaccumulation and toxicity of heavy metals (HMs) adversely affect human health and the surrounding environment. Various sources such as the breakdown of rocks containing heavy metals, volcanic eruptions, and human activities such as the construction of various industries, expansion of urbanization, and extraction from mines cause an increase in HMs pollution (Hamad et al. 2019;Zhuo et al. 2019;Leung et al. 2021). Lead, as a toxic heavy metal, enters the human body from two sources: dust inhalation and the food chain (Kabata-Pendias 2000). ...
The bioaccumulation of lead in soil poses a significant human health risk. The solidification/stabilization (S/S) technique, employing binders like Portland cement or lime, is a common method for remediating lead-contaminated soil. However, cement production has adverse environmental impacts, prompting the exploration of eco-friendly alternatives like alkali-activated materials (AAMs). This study assesses AAM efficacy in the S/S of lead-contaminated soil. The effects of several factors, including varying amounts of volcanic ash (VA), lead concentration, curing temperatures, and curing times are investigated. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS), toxicity characteristic leaching procedure test (TCLP), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and field emission scanning electron microscope-energy-dispersive spectroscopy-mapping analyses (FESEM/EDS/mapping) analyses are used to study the specimens. The findings indicated a substantial increase in the UCS of lead-contaminated soil treated with 15% VA (under oven curing (OC) conditions), and 10% VA (under ambient curing (AC) conditions) exhibited remarkable increases of up to 600% and 458%, respectively. Moreover, the leaching of Pb²⁺ ions from samples contaminated with 10,000 mg/kg (under OC conditions) and 2500 mg/kg (under AC conditions) experienced significant reductions of 87% (from 135.14 to 13.36 ppm) and 91% (from 26.32 to 2.21 ppm), respectively. The S/S process in these samples operated through three primary mechanisms of chemical bonding, physical encapsulation, and the formation of insoluble silicate. The formation of N-A-S–H and hydroxy sodalite structures played a vital role in facilitating these mechanisms. Therefore, alkali-activated VA demonstrated excellent performance in the remediation of lead-contaminated soil.
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... This study utilized the Health Risk Assessment (HRA) model developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2011 to evaluate potential health hazards. In the model, the Hazard Index (HI) represents the cumulative noncarcinogenic risk of all heavy metals, while the Total Carcinogenic Risk (TCR) Index reflects their combined carcinogenic potential (Zhuo et al. 2019). Additionally, this study encompassed two potential health hazards (non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic), three plausible pathways of exposure to heavy metals from sediments (oral-nasal inhalation, skin contact, and direct ingestion), and two distinct demographic groups (children and adults) . ...
The accumulation of heavy metals in river sediment poses a major threat to ecological safety. The Xiaoqing River originates in western Jinan, with higher population density and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in its basin compared to the Shandong province average. This study analyzed the spatial characteristics, ecological risk, human health risk, and contamination sources of heavy metals by collecting sediment samples from Xiaoqing River. We use the methods such as geo-accumulation index (Igeo), ecological risk assessment based on the interval number sorting method, and health risk assessment to evaluate the risk of heavy metals in sediments. The research finding suggests heavy metals including Pb, As, Ni, and Cr are low ecological risks, while Hg and Cd have reached high and extreme ecological risks. Correlation analysis and principal component analysis were used to analyze the correlation and sources of different heavy metals. The six heavy metals were categorized into three groups. Factor 1, comprising Hg, Cr, and Pb, was identified as a mixed source with a contribution rate of 37.76%. Factor 2 is an agricultural source and comprises Ni, Cd, and As with a contribution rate of 27.05%. Factor 3 includes Pb and Ni contributing to 15.30% as a natural source. This study offers valuable insights for the prevention of heavy metal pollution, as well as promoting sustainable urban development.
... Heavy metals enter the environment in a variety of ways, including through manmade or natural sources [1][2][3], and are difficult to remove. They accumulate over time, posing a severe threat to the ecological environment [4,5]. Pb is a fuel additive and Cd is produced by tire wear; therefore, Pb and Cd are the most commonly encountered heavy metals in traffic. ...
Bioretention facilities reduce stormwater runoff and pollutants, but there is a concern that plants in bioretention facilities may absorb heavy metal pollutants from stormwater runoff, which might impair the growth of the plant species. To investigate this issue, stormwater runoff containing various amounts of Pb and Cd heavy metals was used as the irrigation water in a bioretention facility. The low concentrations of Pb and Cd were 0.08 and 0.04 mg/L, and the high values were 0.68 and 0.32 mg/L. The plant heavy metal content and physiological indicators were measured. The indicators were chlorophyll content (CC), net photosynthetic rate (NPR), and transpiration rate (TR). The results showed that the changes in plant chlorophyll content (CC) were highly correlated with changes in the plants’ Pb. Low concentrations of Pb and Cd slightly inhibited the Ginkgo biloba L. and Ligustrum × vicaryi NPRs, the effect was more obvious at high concentrations and the Ligustrum × vicaryi’s NPR decreased from the initial 8.97 μmol CO2/(m2s) to 5.77 μmol CO2/(m2s) under high concentration conditions. Pb and Cd increased the Ginkgo biloba L. and Ligustrum × vicaryi’s TRs, and the effect at low Pb and Cd concentrations was more significant. Under low concentrations of Pb and Cd stress, the Ginkgo biloba L.’s TRs reached 0.63 mmol H2O/(m2s), Ligustrum × vicaryi’s TRs reached 1.30 mmol H2O/(m2s). The TRs of the two plants in the experimental groups remained high throughout the experiment, and there was no significant inhibition. The study found that Pb and Cd in stormwater runoff did affect the physiological function of species to some extent. Different plant species behaved differently in bioretention facilities, but the stormwater runoff did not lead to the death of species. Our study may provide a better understanding of the development of typical plant species in bioretention facilities.
... IR s is the ingestion rates of soil (mg/d); EF s is the exposure frequency of soil (d/y); ED s is the exposure duration of soil (y); AT s is the average time of dose (d); BW is the body weight (kg). The calculation parameters (30, 31) were demonstrated in Supplementary Table S1. The total intakes [µg/(kg · d)] of heavy metals via ingestion pathways were added from by ADDs of water and soil. ...
Lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in environment can be directly absorbed by drinking water and soil. However, data on human Pb and Cd exposure by drinking water and soil and its long-term consequence for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity are lacking. Our study aims to explore the association of typical heavy metals co-exposure in drinking water and soil to the community residents with T2DM and obesity indices in two cities of southern China. A cross-sectional study enrolling total 1,274 participants was performed and the local water and soil samples were collected in two communities in southern China. The average daily dose (ADD) of heavy metals was calculated to assess the exposure. The obesity indices comprise body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist circumference (WC). Binary, multiple logistic and linear regressions were employed for assessing the associations of Pb and Cd exposure with T2DM and obesity. The results showed that there weren't any significant correlations between ADDs of Pb/Cd and T2DM in community residents (all Ps>0.05). Compared with those with 18.5 ≤ BMI <24, with 1 μg/kg bw/d ADD of Pb increase in exposure are associated with 49.2–56.1% lower likelihood of overweight. Besides, with ADDs of Pb exposure was increased by 1 μg/kg bw/d and WHR decreasing by 0.01–0.02, and WC decreasing by 2.22–4.67 cm. We speculate that Pb causes weight loss because it damages the absorption function of the gastrointestinal tract as an initial injury. 1μg/kg bw/d ADD of Cd increase is associated with 100.9% upper likelihood of low weight in Model 1. It suggests that Pb/Cd pollution in the local environment was serious and harmful to residents' health. Government should introduce relevant oversight and accountability systems to improve the prevention and management of lifestyle-related chronic diseases in the future.
... Factor 1 was regarded as the parent material of soil formation. Factor 2 has a certain explanatory effect on all metals, except Sb (Zhuo et al., 2019). Zhang et al. (2019) believed that Sb was more likely to come from industrial activities. ...
The accurate identification of sources for soil heavy metal(loid) is difficult, especially for multi-functional parks, which include multiple pollution sources. Aiming to identify the apportionment and location of heavy metal(loid)s pollution sources, this study established a method combining principal component analysis (PCA), Geodetector, and multiple linear regression of distance (MLRD) in soil and dust, taking a multi-functional industrial park in Anhui Province, China, as an example. PCA and Geodetector were used to determine the type and possible location of the source. Source apportionment of individual elements is achieved by MLRD. The detection results quantified the spatial explanatory power (0.21 ≤ q ≤ 0.51) of the potential source targets (e.g., river and mining area) for the PCA factors. A comparative analysis of the regression equation (Model 1 and Model 3) indicated that the river (0.50 ≤ R² ≤0.78), main road (0.47 ≤ R² ≤ 0.81), and mine (0.14 ≤ R² ≤ 0.92) (p < 0.01) were the main sources. Different from the traditional source apportionment methods, the current method could obtain the exact contributing sources, not just the type of source (e.g., industrial activities), which could be useful for pollution control in areas with multiple sources.
... EDZs are also extensive consumers of natural resources and giant emitters of pollutants. Some literature thus documents the environmental effects of EDZs in recent years (Turgel et al., 2019;Zhuo et al., 2019;Hu and Zhou, 2020;Jiang et al., 2022). Yet, few efforts have been made to examine how EDZs affect the environmental performance of firms within EDZs. ...
Economic Development Zones have been proven to be an economic success and have been pursued by many governments around the world over the past several decades, but there is still a research gap on their impact on the environment. This paper documents the effect of national-level EDZs on the environmental performance of firms. Combining rich firm and administrative data in China from 1998–2012, we exploit the relationship between the foundation of EDZs and firms’ pollution emissions with a multi-period differences-in-differences model. We find that the establishment of national EDZs can effectively reduce the pollution emission intensity of firms within it. Moreover, this pollution reduction effects vary across industries, firms, and EDZs types. We also find that the establishment of EDZs can improve firm environmental performance by improving energy efficiency, optimizing the business environment, and upgrading technology.
... The highest contents of HMs generally occur in the topsoil because surface layers, especially organic horizons, have the most significant ability to bond HMs (Acosta et al., 2015). The HMs originate from anthropogenic and natural sources and have potential risks to ecosystems, human health, environmental persistence, and bioaccumulation (Zhuo et al., 2019). In addition, social activities produce most HM substances due to technological development (Wang et al., 2020). ...
... T r i c i c i n elements i is according to Earth's crust average value (Taylor and McLennan 1995). The relationships between E r i and the pollution level can be classified into the following categories: (Guan et al. 2018;Zhuo et al. 2019). ...
... Besides, the probability of a cancer case resulting from exposure to carcinogenic hazards is called carcinogenic risk (CR). The parameters of HQ, HI, and CR were calculated as follows (Zhuo et al., 2019): ...
Soil pollution with heavy metals (HMs) has become an increasingly serious environmental concern and needs assessment of ecological and human health risks, especially in an urban area. For this purpose, the contents of eight HMs (As, Mn, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in surface (0–5 cm) soil samples from 32 urban sites in the North area of Cyprus were examined using EDXRF spectrometer analysis. The average concentrations for As, Mn, Ni, Pb Cr, Cu, Hg, and Zn in soil samples were 4.7, 950.6, 230.5, 48.2, 1.8, 186.8, 15.1, and 87.5 mg/kg, respectively. The results showed that the mean concentrations of the HMs in the soil samples followed the order Mn > Cr > Ni > Zn > Cu > Pb > As > Hg, respectively. The mean geo-accumulation index (Igeo) of Hg was found in strong/extreme contamination. The potential ecological risk index (PERI) mean value was calculated in moderate ecological risk. Also, health risks assessment through three exposures pathways in adults and children showed that the total hazard index (HI) values for children were higher than for adults.
... Recently, human health risks from PTEs in U mine-associated soils have attracted increased attention internationally (Zhuo et al., 2019;Xiang et al., 2019). Health risk assessments, including cancer or noncancer components, are an effective approach to evaluate the health risks from PTEs in local children, adult males and females. ...
Total levels of nine toxic elements in soils near U mines are reviewed by a global meta-analysis. • Nearly 57.5% of soil samples near U mines were heavily polluted with Cd. • Non-cancer risks of U and As were high, while Cu presents the unacceptable cancer risks. • The environmental and health risks posed by Cd, U, As, and Cu merit more attention. Soil pollution by potentially toxic trace elements (PTEs) near uranium (U) mines arouses a growing interest worldwide. However, nearly all studies have focused on a single site or only a few sites, which may not fully represent the soil pollution status at the global scale. In this study, data of U, Cd, Cr, Pb, Cu, Zn, As, Mn, and Ni contents in U mine-associated soils were collected and screened from published articles (2006-2021). Assessments of pollution levels, distributions, ecological, and human health risks of the nine PTEs were analysed. The results revealed that the average contents of the U, Cd, Cr, Pb, Cu, Zn, As, Mn, and Ni were 39.88-, 55.33-, 0.88-, 3.81-, 3.12-, 3.07-, 9.26-, 1.83-, and 1.17-fold greater than those in the upper continental crust, respectively. The pollution assessment showed that most of the studied soils were heavily polluted by U and Cd. Among them, the U mine-associated soils in France, Portugal, and Bulgaria exhibited significantly higher pollution levels of U and Cd when compared to other regions. The average potential ecological risk value for all PTEs was 3358.83, which indicated the presence of remarkably high risks. Among the PTEs, Cd and U contributed more to the potential ecological risk than the other elements. The health risk assessment showed that oral ingestion was the main exposure route for soil PTEs; and the hazard index (HI) values for children were higher than those for adult males and females. For adult males and females, all hazard index values for the noncarcinogenic risks were below the safe level of 1.00. For children, none of the HI values exceeded the safe level, with the exception of U (HI = 3.56) and As (HI = 1.83), but Cu presented unacceptable carcinogenic risks. This study provides a comprehensive analysis that demonstrates the urgent necessity for treating PTE pollution in U mine-associated soils worldwide.
... Recently, human health risks from PTEs in U mine-associated soils have attracted increased attention internationally (Zhuo et al., 2019;Xiang et al., 2019). Health risk assessments, including cancer or noncancer components, are an effective approach to evaluate the health risks from PTEs in local children, adult males and females. ...
Soil pollution by potentially toxic trace elements (PTEs) near uranium (U) mines arouses a growing interest worldwide. However, nearly all studies have focused on a single site or only a few sites, which may not fully represent the soil pollution status at the global scale. In this study, data of U, Cd, Cr, Pb, Cu, Zn, As, Mn, and Ni contents in U mine-associated soils were collected and screened from published articles (2006–2021). Assessments of pollution levels, distributions, ecological, and human health risks of the nine PTEs were analysed. The results revealed that the average contents of the U, Cd, Cr, Pb, Cu, Zn, As, Mn, and Ni were 39.88-, 55.33-, 0.88-, 3.81-, 3.12-, 3.07-, 9.26-, 1.83-, and 1.17-fold greater than those in the upper continental crust, respectively. The pollution assessment showed that most of the studied soils were heavily polluted by U and Cd. Among them, the U mine-associated soils in France, Portugal, and Bulgaria exhibited significantly higher pollution levels of U and Cd when compared to other regions. The average potential ecological risk value for all PTEs was 3358.83, which indicated the presence of remarkably high risks. Among the PTEs, Cd and U contributed more to the potential ecological risk than the other elements. The health risk assessment showed that oral ingestion was the main exposure route for soil PTEs; and the hazard index (HI) values for children were higher than those for adult males and females. For adult males and females, all hazard index values for the noncarcinogenic risks were below the safe level of 1.00. For children, none of the HI values exceeded the safe level, with the exception of U (HI = 3.56) and As (HI = 1.83), but Cu presented unacceptable carcinogenic risks. This study provides a comprehensive analysis that demonstrates the urgent necessity for treating PTE pollution in U mine-associated soils worldwide.
... e contamination of heavy metals in soil has arisen much public concern both domestically and internationally [1,2]. Previous studies have shown that activities such as mining and smelting can translocate heavy metals into the soil [3]. ...
... In this study, three different particle sizes of hydroxyapatite (conventional particle size, micro-and nanohydroxyapatite) were selected as test materials to study the existing forms, distribution, and migration of heavy metals in soil after 4 years of remediation in field scale. e objectives of this study were to (1) compare the effects of three particle size hydroxyapatite on the existing forms and chemical fractions of Cu and Cd in soil and (2) investigate the changes of Cu and Cd in the distribution and migration in the smelter-impacted soil. e results would put insight into the stabilization effect of different particle size materials in field scale and remind us to pay attention to the risk management and control of soil after remediation. ...
To study the remediation effect of hydroxyapatite with different particle sizes, a field in situ experiment was carried out by adding conventional hydroxyapatite (0.25 mm) and microhydroxyapatite (3 μm) and nanohydroxyapatite (40 nm) to the contaminated soil and planting Elsholtzia splendens. The distribution and migration of copper (Cu) and cadmium (Cd) in soil were investigated after 4 years. The results show that the application of three different particle sizes of hydroxyapatite significantly raise the soil pH, total phosphorus, and soil organic carbon. Moreover, the addition of hydroxyapatite can reduce the EXC fraction of Cu and Cd by 73.7%–80.1% and 20.8%–35.2%, respectively. In addition, the concentrations of Cu and Cd in >2 mm, 0.25–2 mm, 0.053–0.25 mm, and <0.053 mm aggregate are significantly increased. This improvement indicates that there are risks which may cause the increasing of total Cu and Cd in the soil where the pollution sources still exist. Furthermore, the content of soil colloid is significantly increased, and the colloidal Cu and Cd distribution percentage have been significantly increased by 49.9%–120% and 30.3%–181%. This result illustrates that the application of hydroxyapatite may greatly increase the possibility of colloid and dust migration of Cu and Cd.
